


this, forever

by talktothesky



Category: Hit the Floor (TV)
Genre: "Stupid" as a term of endearment, Canon Compliant, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, Fluff, Insecure Jude, M/M, Prompt Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-08
Updated: 2016-10-08
Packaged: 2018-08-20 06:33:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,142
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8239450
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/talktothesky/pseuds/talktothesky
Summary: Jude takes a deep breathe and then exhales to enquire, “Do you think we’re boring?”





	

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everyone! This is my first Jude/Zero fic even though I've been obsessed with these two since the summer. I have a couple more ideas in my head and I hope I'll be writing them soon so stay tuned. 
> 
> This was written for [this prompt](http://team-zude.dreamwidth.org/26133.html?thread=2581#cmt2581) over at team_zude. I don't really know how it transformed into this. 
> 
> I hope you all like this.
> 
> This story happens somewhere between 3x04 and 3x10 canon-wise so the apartment they're in is definitely Jude's apartment.

“Should we… Should we go out?”

Jude’s voice surprises Zero, who was up until that moment absorbed by the baseball game playing on TV.  The question confuses him and he pulls his eyes away from the television to meet Jude’s gaze. 

Jude is laying down on the couch, his head resting on Zero’s lap while Zero himself is sat down comfortably with one of his hands holding a cold beer bottle and the other playing absentmindedly with Jude’s disheveled hair. Jude’s head is tilted back so he can stare at Zero and the book he had been previously reading -while ignoring Zero’s curses and mutters every time something happened at the game- is now resting closed on his chest. 

Zero likes to think that he has gotten well versed in the art of reading Jude so when he notices Jude’s frown and his nervous look he grabs the remote from the back of the couch and lowers the TV volume until the commentator’s voice is nothing more than a quiet background hum. 

“Do you want to go out?” is Zero’s response, mostly because he doesn’t really know the answer Jude is looking for. 

“Do you?” questions Jude again. 

Zero takes a sip from his beer and shrugs, “Not really, no.”

Zero’s confusion only grows when Jude’s frown deepens. _Did I do something wrong? Did I fuck up?_ , he thinks.

Jude starts moving from his reclined position until he’s sitting down a few inches away from Zero, a few inches that feel like an entire ocean between them through Zero’s rising panic. Zero takes a long gulp of beer just to give himself something to do while waiting for Jude to speak again. His boyfriend is giving himself time to gather his thoughts, though, and he leans forwards to leave his book at the coffee table before he speaks.  

“You don’t want to go out?” is what Jude says next. 

Zero is still not sure what to reply. Is there a wrong answer to the question? Is Zero supposed to know what Jude wants to do and answer accordingly?  He’s not really sure so he settles on the only real thing he can do: be honest.

“No,” he says sincerely while shaking his head. “What is there to go out for, anyway?” 

“What do people normally do when they go out?” Jude asks a little sarcastically. “Dinner and a movie, have drinks, maybe hit a club…”

“Well, I didn’t know clubs were your scene.” Zero observed, raising one of his eyebrows. 

“They’re not.” Jude confesses. “But that doesn’t mean I can’t go to one every once in a while.”

“So you want to go to a club?” 

“Yes! No! I don’t know!” Jude blabbers, obviously frustrated because he can’t get his point across. “I just, I mean, …” 

Jude leans forward to rest his elbows on his knees and runs his hands through his hair, once, twice, until he leaves the palm of his hands pressed to his eyes.  

“Jude…” Zero pronounces after a couple of minutes of silence have passed.

Before Zero can even blink Jude is standing up and heading to the bedroom, muttering low enough that Zero barely catches it, “Forget it, it’s stupid.”

Zero is left standing alone in the living room, perplexed at Jude’s behavior. 

He looks back at the TV but he can’t focus on what’s happening. Are the Dodgers winning? Are they losing? Fuck it, he doesn’t really care. 

Zero finishes his beer and stands up while turning off the TV. He chucks the remote towards the couch and leaves the empty beer bottle on the coffee table before following Jude into the bedroom.

When he enters the room he’s not shocked to see Jude sitting on the bench at the foot of their bed. 

Zero leans against the doorway and stares at Jude who after only a few seconds tears his eyes away from his own hands to look back at him. 

“I didn’t mean to freak out like that.” Jude apologizes. “I guess I’m just, well… Worried.”

“Worried? About what?”

“It’s just something I heard some of the other players talk about.” Jude starts to explain. “How you don’t really go out much anymore.”

It really doesn’t surprise Zero that his teammates have said that. In the past few months he has turned down invitations to go out with the team a lot more frequently than he used to before he was with Jude, but it makes a lot of sense to him. First of all, most of the guys go out just to pick up girls and get laid and though he thinks that’s perfect for them he can now get laid anytime he wants at home. And second, it’s not like he and most of the team are friends, anyway. Sure, he’s cool with some of the guys and they’re mostly fun to be with during practice but he never came to LA to make friends. 

A night out with casual acquaintances or a night in with Jude? The best alternative is pretty obvious to Zero.

There’s something he still doesn’t understand and so he asks Jude, “How does that make you worried?”

Jude shrugs and Zero could swear he’s lightly blushing. “You used to love going out before we, you know, before we started dating. I feel like lately all we do is stay in, watch TV, order take out and have sex.”

Zero loves staying in, watching TV, ordering take out and having sex. Especially having sex. _Especially_ having sex with Jude. 

“You say that like having sex with me is terrible.” Zero retorts.

Jude chuckles, “You know it’s not.”

Zero pushes away from the doorway and finally makes his way into the room and closer to Jude. He sits down next to his boyfriend, angling his body so he can look Jude in the eye while they speak, urging Jude to do the same.

“What’s the problem then?”

Jude looks conflicted, probably going through some kind of turmoil in his head about the pros and cons of telling Zero. He finally seems to come to a decision and he reaches out with his hands to grab Zero’s. Zero doesn’t hesitate to meet him halfway and as soon as he’s got Jude’s hands in his he intertwines their fingers tightly, rubbing the back of Jude’s hands with his thumbs trying to convey support.

“I need you to be honest, okay?” Jude pleads and Zero nods. 

“Always, Jude.”

Jude takes a deep breathe and then exhales to enquire, “Do you think we’re boring?”

It’s like a light has gone off in what was before a completely dark room and now Zero can see, he can see and understand _everything_. 

He knows Jude, he knows Jude’s hopes and dreams, his likes and dislikes, he knows his passions and his insecurities, his _many_ insecurities, most of them born from Oscar’s neglect and disapproval but some of them born from Zero himself, even though he’s not proud of the fact. Jude’s insecurities concerning their relationship are mostly dull now, buried under the steady growth of their relationship and their commitment to one another but Zero realizes this is one of the moments in which they must have come alive and nagged at Jude until he couldn’t hide them anymore.

“Jude—“ he tries to reassure him but Jude interrupts him.

“I know that since you came out the press has been all over you, and by default me, scrutinizing what you do and where we go but I think things have calmed down now and we could start behaving normally again, no one would think badly of you now because you’ve gone back to partying and —“

This time Zero does the interrupting by squeezing Jude’s hands and grabbing his attention, “Jude, stop. Just relax, okay?”

Jude nods, a little calmer after he takes some deep breaths and closes his eyes. When he opens them again they settle on Zero’s.

“I just don’t want you to feel like you have to be someone else or behave a certain way because we’re together.”

Zero can’t help the laugh that falls from his lips at that comment and he also can’t resist the urge to get closer to Jude and kiss him chastely on the lips. 

“Jude.” Zero knows how much his tone of voice transmits. It’s all in there: all the love and affection he feels for Jude, all the trust, the raw need he has for this man who has made his life so much better since he became a part of it. He can’t help but repeat his boyfriend’s name once more, making Jude blush so prettily. 

Zero separates his hands from Jude’s so he can hold Jude’s face tenderly between his hands. Zero pulls Jude close so he can kiss him passionately. It’s not a deep kiss but it’s meaningful, their lips gliding and their breaths mixing. Zero moves away after softly biting Jude’s lips, making him moan and shiver. Zero feels a current of electricity run all the way down to his toes at the sound.

Their faces stay close and when Zero speaks it’s in a low, tender voice. “Jude, you know I’m only ever myself when I’m with you.”

Zero pulls back so he can look Jude in the eye and runs one of his hands through his blond hair. 

“I used to go out a lot and sure, you could always find me in a club if I was not on a court but it was never because I loved it or needed it. I just… never really had anything else to do.”

Words are not something that come easy to him, but for Jude he always tries. 

“You know I’ve never done this before: have a relationship, be with someone. It used to be easier for me to look for things to do that would get people near me but not really close to me, does that make sense?”

“Yes,” Jude whispers.

“I don’t think we’re boring,” Zero states. “not in a million years. We have enough craziness in our lives and when we get to just be together here, no responsibilities or outside world, it feels refreshing.”

A small smile appears on Jude’s face, lighting it up and crinkling his eyes. Zero has come to know it as Jude’s _Gideon smile_ and he adores it. 

“I’m not saying we have to become recluses. If we both feel like it we can definitely go out and explore this whole city together. I’ll parade you around the best goddamn restaurants and the most exclusive clubs and everyone will be jealous of me because I get to take you home at the end of the night.”

Jude laughs softly and hits Zero’s left shoulder while muttering, “Stupid.”

Zero smiles, “We can go out for a million date nights but my favorite ones will always be the ones we get to spend here. In your apartment. Just you and me watching TV, ordering take out and having sex.” 

 _Forever_ , Zero doesn’t say -because he has already gotten mushy enough for one day- but he thinks it. Oh, how he thinks it. It’s always forever with Jude.

Carefully, Jude touches Zero’s cheek with his fingertips, a light caress that leaves Zero’s skin tingling. 

“Gideon…”

And that’s the root of it all: Zero is only ever Gideon with Jude and though he tried to escape it for years he’s gotten addicted to the feeling, he has gotten addicted to letting his walls down and simply _being_.

This time their kiss is electrifying, so hot it makes Zero instantly hard, his jeans getting more and more uncomfortable the longer Jude’s tongue explores his mouth. 

They get up still attached at the lips and they move to the left side of the bed where Zero pushes Jude gently so the brunet ends up sitting on the edge of the bed with Zero still standing up in front of him. The blond takes a hold of the back of his t-shirt and in one smooth move gets rid of it, leaving him shirtless. Jude moves his hands to Zero’s sides instantly, pulling him closer in between his spread legs. Jude’s mouth starts a sinful path down Zero’s abs, licking, sucking, biting and driving Zero absolutely crazy. 

“You know,” Jude stops his exploration of Zero’s torso. “this date night of ours… We’ve watched TV but we have yet to order take out, we’re just jumping straight into having sex.”

Zero smirks, his thumb delicately tracing Jude’s shiny bottom lip. “Well, I certainly won’t complain about mixing things up.”

Jude laughs, an indecent gleam showing in his eyes. He captures Zero’s thumb with his teeth and starts sucking on it obscenely, his lips reddening deliciously. 

 _This, forever,_ Zero thinks before straddling Jude’s hips and making them both lose their minds.

**Author's Note:**

> I would love to know what you all thought about this!
> 
> visit me at [my tumblr](http://natpeggy.tumblr.com) <3


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